This latest build did not involve corner cutting and will not inspire any
budget conscious enthusiasts. Components were strategically selected to
yield the best silent build possible while utilizing Zalman's 9 year old
TNN-500AF case, which to the best of my knowledge is still the best
designed and most effective passively cooled full-size ATX case to have been
released by any manufacturer to this day (while also being the most
expensive, $1,499.99 retail at launch).

Windows Experience Index scores. This
screenshot also shows the relatively cool temps and the
installed hardware within Device
Manger.

GeekBench
results. Although this is not an overclocked gaming build,
quite the opposite actually, it's interesting to note that this fanless build yielded the
absolute highest 3770S scores on record (comparison
link).

The project... with commentary:

These are the initial components purchased that kick started
this build. I later discovered by trial and error that the
passively cooled GTS 450 Zone (and the recently released GT 640 Zone)
are too tall for the TNN-500AF case. The heat pipes of this
video card extend too far and will impact the 400W PSU when you try
to close the case. Do NOT attempt to install either of these
cards into this case as it will bend the heat pipes of your
video card, dent the Zalman PSU casing, and can fry your system
(voltage jumping from PSU to MB through firm contact with video card).
Also decided to upgrade from 8GB (shown left) to 16GB of RAM (shown
below).

Since Zotac's GTS 450 Zone Zone was incompatible with the case,
I later decided to use the case's heat pipe solution to passively
cool the 65W TDP GT 640. Luke of
Endpcnoise.com was kind enough
to supply me with the screw I needed to optimally complete this
build as I was short one hex mounting screw for the motherboard
installation. I only asked for one but he sent me five! Also shown is
the 16GB of HyperX that was purchased to upgrade the 8GB that I had
never used and Fusion-io's 80GB PCIe SSD card carried over from previous build.
FYI, the heatsink fins of this particular model of HyperX memory are
too tall when using the mounting plates of the case (mounting plates
x4 were installed for the SSDs).

Last batch of components, most of
which were purchased towards the final phase of the system build.
Needed low profile memory since the tall fins of the older style
HyperX were impacting the case's mounting plates. Decided to
try larger capacity PCI-E SSD card but the OCZ was causing
sleep/hibernate issues because the bios kept defaulting to the OCZ
at resume (RAID 10 is OS and OCZ was intended for applications).
Didn't want to wait for a possible bios patch for motherboard,
reverted back to the Fusion-io PCI-E SSD, problem solved. Discovered that
I required more thermal paste than originally anticipated, partly
because I replaced/upgraded the case's thermal blocks (taken from
2nd TNN-500AF purchase). Although I'm only using 4 HyperX SSDs
for this build, I acquired a few more at a great price for backup.
The display port adapter was necessary for the HD 7750 from HIS seen
in picture below. To better group the cables that route from
the external PSU, I went with blue ties that can be cut to the
lengths required.

Since this build spanned a period of months,
better video card solutions surfaced and so multiple upgrades were
made throughout this project. In order of acquisition... Zotac's GTS 450 Zone was too large for
the Zalman TNN-500AF
case door to close as it was impacting the case's PSU shell.
Next was the GT 640, which was a moderate upgrade until the lower TDP and higher performance
GTX 650 was released just a month later.
Considering how frequently video cards are upgraded, I ultimately
decided on the passively cooled HD 7750 from HIS. The blue
metal heatsink of the 7750 is a nice match for the internal cooling
blocks of
this case and the passive heatsink met the low profile requirements
of the case. This build already utilizes an external PSU which
completely removes a large element of heat from the case, so
forgoing the case's heat pipe cooling solution for the GPU
contributed to even lower temps for the case and ultimately lower
temps for the CPU and motherboard. The next video card upgrade
on the horizon will be Sapphire's low profile
passively cooled 7770 that was announced June 2012, but
considering the long delay, I'm skeptical if it will ever see
production. I'd also settle with a
passively cooled GTX 680 from Colorful, but that appears to be
vaporware as well.

I tried THREE (3) Seasonic
fanless/silent PSUs and they all exhibited identical buzzing.
I swapped the Seasonics quite few times, yet I couldn’t perceive a
difference in the decibel nor pitch of the buzzing between their fanless models. Even Seasonic themselves said the buzzing
sound was normal and that exchanging would be fruitless. Either I
purchased 3 brand new but defective Seasonic PSUs, or the
manufacturer knows what they are talking about when they say the
buzzing sound is normal. I suspect that all Seasonic fanless
PSUs exhibit this buzzing. However, this is a
seriously MAJOR factor to consider, something that should not affect
everyone… with this fanless/silent build, the PSU resides over a
foot OUTSIDE the case which means that there is zero sound buffering
but this allows for unrestricted/full ventilation of the PSU. For
others, having the PSU within a closed case may very well alleviate
any humming sound (coil whine) that a normal human ear could
detect. 10 feet away, I could still hear it, but again, it was not
inside a case and yes, my room is rather silent.

The KingWin Stryker 500 only makes a
clicking sound when you turn it on and off. Now it does have
faint coil whine but it’s truly only audible when your ear is inches
away and directly above the PSU. This KingWin is completely
inaudible from a few feet away and I'm extremely pleased to have
found this silent solution. Coincidentally, the heat sink color
and design of the KingWin is a perfect match for the TNN-500AF.

The KingWin PSU is mounted on a custom stand
built by Sound Anchors (cut and welded to the exact dimensions of
the PSU). This stand keeps the cables elevated and well off
the ground to prevent any magnetic interference from the Earth's
core (I admit that this is mainly for aesthetics and not fear of
resistance/interference; the vast majority of audiophiles don't
bother elevating their speaker wire off the ground). Although
wheels weren't really necessary, they were added since the Zalman
case has wheels. The hollows of this steel stand were filled
with sand for stability and a solid feel/footprint.

The initial reason that I chose custom cabling was because the
24-pin motherboard cable required a 2-pin appendage to branch off
for powering the infrared sensor. Also, since this build
utilizes an external PSU, power cable extensions were required of
varying lengths. Custom assembled cables allowed for the
creation of the exact lengths necessary and so when the case is
closed, all cables that extend from back of case to the PSU are of
equal slack as the lengths were intentionally designed to achieve
this effect.
Popular vote decided that black with blue accents was the best
color combination for the sleeves.
These cables were quite the side project as you can see
from the
request page, but the end result was well worth it. Professionally made by Martin of
PsychoSleeve.com, utilizing
German MDPC-X
sleeves. Additional mods that Martin performed that are
not listed on initial request page include rebuild of 2-pin cable to
extend by 3" and custom rubber heat shrink labels with hand painted
white numbering for SATA breakout cable.

Here we have the RAID breakout cable that was custom sleeved.
A
Sanford Uni-Ball
Gel Impact Pen was used to hand paint the numbering onto both
sides of the black rubber heat shrink labels.

Here's the custom 2-pin cable that branches from the 24-pin
motherboard cable. Its purpose is to provide power to the
infrared sensor of the case for turning on the system by remote
control. This 2-pin cable includes a wire that
is a +5 V standby which supplies power even when the other supply
lines are off (i.e. before powering on the computer).

Acquired from a
supplier in the UK. According to the source, these pads
are allegedly used in the aerospace industry and are among the most
technologically advanced thermal pads on the market.

The carbon thermal pads have an insane 20W/The carbon thermal pads have an insane 20W/mK heat transfer but
they are not adhesive or form fitting, and they are electrically
conductive, so they can only be used between the CPU and heat sink
in this build (I only used a single 30mm x 30mm x 0.5m carbon pad).
The gray pads are not electrically conductive, have a natural tack
to them, and offer the 2nd highest thermal conductivity of 12W/mK.
Upon request, the supplied can cut your pads into 10mm squares or
circles, whichever you prefer. Between thermal block and
motherboard, circles should be your only choice since you want to
avoid the obstructions of soldered circuits.

The 1mm thermal pads I had ordered were too thick for use on both sides of the thermal blocks so I
custom trimmed the extra thermal stickers that came with thee Zalman heatsink
kits. These thermal stickers actually turned out perfectly since they are
super adhesive (you can literally pickup the entire motherboard from a
single thermal block). With the stock thermal pads out of the way, there's
no more worrying about knocking over a thermal block during motherboard
installation.

Installed thermal blocks for Southbridge, Northbridge, and FET area. For additional thermal conductivity, 16 rear mount thermal blocks were used
instead of the traditional 8 that are included with the case.

The square pads you see attached to the top of the thermal blocks are
the 10mm x 10mm x 1mm 12W//mK extreme thermal adhesive pads. They
are naturally tacky and have a clear protective film on both sides
that you remove when ready to install. Ideally, you would need to
order 0.5mm pads for both the top and bottom of the thermal block
for optimal height once installed. 1mm for both sides will be too
thick and will cause your motherboard to rise slightly more than
desired above the gold hex shaped mounting screws. However, you do
need some thickness to your pads or they will NOT connect and
transfer heat because the height of those gold hex shaped mounting
screws are > than that of the thermal blocks. Btw, the
source in the UK recently acquired a hole puncher/cutter so you can
request 10mm diameter circles from him now.

Here's the CPU block base, the core component that
transfers heat away from the processor by convection.

Each new build within the TNN-500AF case requires some slight
modifications to the heat pipes since the CPU is never in the
exact same location of the motherboard. This is achieved
by bending the heatpipes and repositioning the case blocks.

Custom
2-pin installed. Also shows SATA data cables: x4 for
SSDs and one for DVD burner.

Bottom PCI-E slot is occupied by Fusion-io 80GB ioXtreme.

Close-up of the Northbridge case cooling
block.

The finished assembly of internal hardware of case that includes all
components that are directly connected to motherboard, shown in high
resolution with warm incandescent lighting
(system is probably too heavy/risky to place on top of photo table). The wifi card
and dehumidifier of motherboard
can be disabled in bios.

Raid 10 assembly: Super tacky/sticky Sorbothane
pads were used to mount the Kingston HyperX SSDs onto the mounting
plates of the TNN-500AF case. The
Sorbothane pads serve as
superb heat transfer pads and they give you the flexibility of
mounting an SSD virtually anywhere within your case.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase
3

Phase 4

Phase 5

Comprehensive list of new components ordered
that were used for this project:

PCI-E SSD:
Fusion-io 420GB ioFX Qty: 2
$3,084.77(on order as of March 6th, 2013, will update pictures
w/ write-up after installed) - This is by far
the ultimate single slot PCI-E SSD for a Windows 7 64-bit machine available.
Each ioFX provides a billion (1,000,000,000) input and output operations per second, a
snappy read latency of .068 ms and write latency is .015 ms, and a read
bandwidth of 1.4 GB/s. Fusion-io has agreed to provide in-house passive heat sinks for their ioFX
(2 black, 2 silver, and 2 raw), and I will swap them with the fans after I have
the raw heat sinks anodized and dyed blue. An extreme silent
computing enthusiast's dream come true this is! Will setup the 2 ioFXs in
RAID 0 to serve as the
application drive for this system for 3GB/sec reads & 840GB of storage.http://www.fusionio.com/products/iofx/

PSU:KingWin Stryker 500-Watt ATX 500 Fanless Power Supply STR-500
$135.99 - Inaudible buzzing from a few feet away
even when PSU resides outside of case. While in an exceptionally quiet
room, your ear must literally be placed directly above and inches away from PSU
to perceive faint coil whine. PSU makes a single click sound when you turn
on system and only for that brief microsecond when power is activated.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CM8V4I/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3C_ST1_dp_2

Total cost of new components that were purchased
and used for this new silent system build:
$6,193.46
The following components
were ordered and received, but
decided to upgrade/replace as build progressed, or only partially use in final
build, or did not use at all and kept previous component(s) as seen with the 20.1"
NEC displays:

Case:Zalman
TNN-500AF Fanless Totally No Noise (TNN) Computer Case,
$1259.95$775.61
($700 + shipping) - Purchased used from seller on
eBay. Bought for spare parts to use best looking parts for this new build
and have 2nd TNN-500AF for future build. Had slightly better condition
Northbridge and CPU heat blocks (less fading and brighter blue steel), both of
which were used in this new build. I won't count this purchase towards
final build cost, but is included for 'Total cost of all components purchased'.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/zalman-tnn500af.html

SSDs: Kingston HyperX SH100S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal
Solid State Drive Qty: 3 $225 (Purchased used from seller on eBay)- only needed one since I stripped threads of one SSD by over tightening while
mounting to metal plate of case. Seller accepted my best offer of $75 each
so I ended up with 3. Now I'll have two backup SSDs in case any SSDs of
the RAID 10 array fail (up to two drives can fail and data can still be
maintained in RAID 10 array). I won't count this purchase towards final build
cost, but certainly counts towards total cost of parts purchased.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139599PCI-E SSD: OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-Express SSD
$360- 3x the capacity and nearly 1/3 the price of the
Fusion-io 80GB ioXtreme from previous build.Too bad it competes with the 3ware
9750-4i for the boot drive (impossible to resume from sleep/hibernate).Tried tons of bios tweaks, nothing
works except for removing the OCZ from the build (or installing OS on OCZ and
applications on the RAID 10, which was not preferred). Fortunately,
Fusion-io has agreed to assist with my quest in acquiring their ioFX as
passively cooled.

Displays: NEC MultiSync LCD2090UXi-BK
20.1” inch LCD S-IPS Monitor Qty: 4 $800
(A stock from computersnow.com) - Tried to
upgrade displays.These had great specs and were in
near pristine condition without dead/stuck pixels for a bargain price, but the
displays exhibited a crystalline surface that made text annoyingly difficult to
read.This was apparently how NEC designed
them from the factory.Still waiting for better 5:4 display
tech to surface, perhaps in 2013 or beyond OLED will have matured.Until then, the NEC LCD1990SX remains
crisp and free of obstructions, which was my upgrade to NEC's 1990FXp.http://www.nec-display.com/ap/en_display/lcd2090uxi/index.html

Total cost of all components utilized from previous build for the new build:
$2,679.33

Budget summary for this silent enthusiast
build:

Total cost of all components purchased for build/setup (actual
components used + test/replacement parts):
$12,195.22
Total cost of components used for system (subtracting
$3,322.43 in components that were replaced or
not fully utilized during
build process for one reason or another):
$8,872.79

-The following expenses were NOT included as part of this
system build project: 5.1 surround system, printers, scanner, battery backup,
surge protectors, mouse & keyboard, software beyond OS, router, miscellaneous
cables, computer desk, computer chair, plastic floor mat for chair, et cetera.
Literally used a full box of cotton swaps + 1.5 boxes of alcohol pads to
polish/clean every crevice and probably a dozen kilowatts of power to vacuum
every visible spec of dust/grease from the hardware during this project.
Besides, since this system is fan free, dust isn't an issue when case is closed.